“Into the Phylacterium”

Canto xxxii from The Mysteries of Arklan

The party heads deeper into Illiamara’s inner sanctum. Val looks over a ledge that leads to the Abyss and jumps in, but is saved by Pantaghion with an improvised lasso. Flying after Val in the form of a hawk, Tilia too is compelled to plunge towards the Abyss. Val catches her and she transforms back into a firbolg. Pantaghion manages to pull both of them to safety.

The party is attacked by a vampire named Hy Lee who guards Illiamara’s lair. Val and Pantaghion find that their weapon attacks aren’t as effective as they expect them to be. The vampire is cowed by Tilia’s powerful sunbeam spell, but the snow simulacrum of Illiamara appears and traps Tilia in a force cage. She magically dominates Val and compels her to pummel Jerry. Hy Lee seduces Pantaghion with her vampiric charm and lures him into an inner chamber where she begins to feed on him. 

Ari, Falco, Erione, and Teal fight Illiamara’s simulacrum with a range of magic attacks, including fire bolt, magic missile, and moonbeam. The simulacrum unleashes a fireball and poisonous gas on them and uses the dominated Val to attack Teal. Pantaghion breaks free of Hy Lee’s charm and drags her back into the main chamber where the others can attack her. The vampire is destroyed by the radiance emitted by Tilia from inside the force cage. Illiamara’s clone retreats into the inner room; Falco destroys the simulacrum by invoking daylight. Teal uses a fiery sphere to prevent the clone from regenerating. 

The party recovers a staff, a ring, and a mini-astrolabe from the simulacrum’s melted form. They approach the portal gate and try to activate it by exploring various interpretations of a riddle engraved around it. Teal conjures up an ice dagger and uses it to draw blood from his own hand. The portal activates. Teal and Val enter the portal and find themselves in a tunnel-like structure swirling with fearsome ethereal forms. Pursued all the way by the ghoulish inhabitants, they run towards the end of the tunnel and just barely make it to the other side without getting caught. The rest of the party follows more stealthily and succeed in joining Val and Teal in what appears to be one of Illiamara’s laboratories.